Cricket and the Illusion of Being on the Right Side

 

Let’s start with a story. The setting is a cricket series in Toronto – Sahara Cup 1997. India and Pakistan were taking their cricketing rivalry to a neutral venue. Toronto was considered a suitable venue – it has a great cricket culture, with a large expat population from the subcontinent. The tournament was labeled the “Friendship Cup”, with promoting amity between the countries as the stated goal.

I watched three of the five games live with my brother, wife and some friends. All of us supported India of course! We had seen the earlier edition of the tournament, featuring the same teams the previous year, but had still not gotten over the novelty of the Indian team taking on their archrivals live in our backyard. We had planned the event like a picnic, with packed lunch, drinks and snacks.

There were several things to be thrilled about. We were able to get there early and were able to watch the teams practice from close quarters. It was well before the horrors of 9/11. There was no fence around the playing area.  We ran into Azhar Mehmood and Saqlain Mushtaq on our way in. We recognized them as Pakistani cricketers through their gear but did not know who they were. Saqlain was still new (to us), and Mehmood was about to make his debut. When we took the shuttle from the parking lot, we also sat next to Colin Croft, the West Indian fast bowler who was there as a commentator.

In the stands, the Indian and Pakistani pockets were easily identifiable by their chants, hats and flags. Fans were allowed to bring their drums and megaphones. The pockets were cheering their respective teams and targeting the players of the ‘other’ team with some good-natured banter. To be precise, the banter was good natured to start with.

On the first day, some Pakistani men in front of us were talking to the players who were at the boundary. I recall them asking Abhay Kuruvilla how tall he was and encouraging Azharuddin to ‘grab the captaincy back’. (Sachin Tendulkar had recently taken over from Azharuddin as the captain of India).

The Indian fans started by reminding the Pakistanis of some recent previous encounters in Toronto and Bangalore, where India had prevailed. Again, nothing more than cheerful back-and-forth.

As the day progressed, the banter intensified, and at some point, changed into verbal duels. And later, it transformed into outright nastiness. The Pakistani fans from our gallery were shouting insults at the Indian fielders at the boundary. Not to be outdone, the Indian fans targeted the Pakistani players.

An Indian fan seated near us - let’s call him Desi Dada for convenience – was far above anyone else in his nastiness. I put most of the blame for vitiating the environment in our neighbourhood on him. He picked Rameez Raja for special treatment. Rameez, to our surprise, reacted with a surprisingly crude gesture that was inconsistent with the suave personality he was known to assume in front of the cameras.  Desi Dada apparently decided that addressing the players did not give him enough scope for his creativity and started taunting the Pakistani fans in front of us. The Pakistanis retaliated with some choice words of their own. Soon, water bottles started flying. (Plastic ones, thankfully!).

We were surprised at how quickly good-natured banter turned into a nasty brawl. When a few policemen came down to enquire who started the brawl, my brother challenged Desi Dada towards to display his bravery to the policemen and gave him an encouraging shove in the right direction. Dada did no such thing, of course. A few policemen took station near where we were, and that settled things down for the rest of the day.

On the second day, Shiv Kumar (his real name), an Indian fan started teasing the Pakistani players. We were too far from him to be able to see him, but could hear him clearly, as he had a megaphone. He was particularly critical of Inzamam Ul-Haq’s body weight, calling him an aloo (Potato). I did not hear him say anything unparliamentary, but he was taunting the Pakistani players non-stop.

At some point, the Pakistanis had had enough. Pakistan was fielding then. For some reason, one of the substitute players brought a bat to the boundary. Inzamam picked it up, jumped the fence, entered the crowd, and attacked the fan. The security personnel intervened and broke up the fight before anyone was seriously hurt. The game eventually resumed. The Toronto police spoke to everyone concerned and decided to not bring up criminal charges. I suspect the High Commissions of India and Pakistan were involved.

This shows how mob psychology and group-think can cause good men to lose their reason. Something that initially starts off as good-natured banter can escalate to something bigger just due to a few bad apples. It is not obvious to the participants when the transformation takes place. I recall being ashamed at a stage for initially having enjoyed the wisecracks from Desi Dada.

I have been thinking more about this in the last few days. Why? Two recent incidents.

The first incident is an accusation of racism against some Australian fans in Sydney. I am willing to believe that it started innocently enough and escalated due to lack of reaction from the players or under the influence of alcohol. We don’t know exactly all that happened, but it is hard to believe that the instigators would have thought race is an appropriate theme for humor without some inherent bias. Unlike what happened in Toronto, there were no physical fights. Mohammed Siraj had the courage to bring it to the match officials’ attention, and the Police acted more decisively.

Some Indian fans generalize this to ‘What do you expect?  The Aussies crowds have always been racist’. Someone reminded me in this context that Moeen Ali was called “Ossama” by an unnamed Aussie player. I want to remind them that Moeen was also the target of a "noncrime hate-related incident" involving expat Indian population. That happened in his own hometown, Edgbaston.

The second reason for me to remember the Sahara cup episode was last week’s civic unrest in Washington. Many Republican supporters have now woken up to realize that they have been on the wrong side for a while. The common reaction that I see on social media is - 'what took you so long?' It may have been misplaced loyalty to a person, party, or just willful ignorance. Or it could be just the aversion to the alternative. Many people have seen something bad coming. It is hard for the such folks to resist saying ‘I told you so’, but that restraint is exactly what it might take to unite all the folks against the fringe elements.

Indian press has been wondering if the events were uniquely American, with headlines such as ‘Could it happen here?’. I have seen similar questions raised in the Canadian media as well.

I think it absolutely can. Bias has been hiding in plain sight and has been waiting for a spark. Most people can’t recognize their own bias until someone with the same bias ends up doing something appalling.  In the Indian context, some examples are Godhra, Babri Masjid, the rise of Bindranwale, the anti-Sikh riots, support for LTTE and the spectator unrest in the 1996 World Cup Semi-finals.

The Sahara Cup episode above is a miniature incident that I have seen from close quarters. It might have been a lesson sent to teach me not to see things in black or white. It’s all too easy to be sure of your conviction for a long time, and then find that your moral compass has been off after the fact.

The purpose of this article is not to defend the erstwhile Trump supporters, or the erring spectators in Sydney. Rather, the point is that it is usually hard to tell the good guys from the bad, after nastiness becomes the norm. Wasn’t that the main theme of the war of Mahabharat?